bursch



(No Model.)

.G. A. BURSOH. RAILWAY SWITCH.

No. 569,612. Patented Oct. 20, 1896.-

M M m 5 JM I flifarne ms new: P515015 00.. PHEWOYLITHOH WASHINGI'QUNITED) STATES FFICE.

PATENT GUSTAVUS A. BURSOH, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO FREDERICKJ. W. BURSOH, OF SAME PLACE.

RAI LWAY-SWITCH.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 569,612, dated October20, 1896.

Application filed November 14, 1896. Serial No. 568,875. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GUSTAVUS A. Benson, a citizen of the United States,residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Railway Switches, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, in which like letters refer to like partsin each figure.

My invention relates to devices for switching street-railway cars, andparticularly to such as are designed to be controlled and operated fromthe said cars. Its object is particularly to provide a reliable meanswhereby the tongue of the said switch may be shifted in one direction orthe other, as desired, the moving impulse being supplied by the motionof the car and communicated to the said tongue by direct mechanicalcontact. This object I accomplish by means of the device illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, in which-- Figure 1 is a transverse sectionthrough the line y y in Fig. 2, also showing a section through .2' e onthe same figure, and showing parts of the device attached to the plate XFig. 2 is a top view of the device in position with a part of the box Xcut away. Fig. 3 is a view of the part of the device attached to thecar. Fig. t is a top view of parts of the same upon the platform of thecar. Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section through the line 1; ein Fig. 2.

The tongue A between the rails A and A is connected to one end of thecrank B by means of the switch-bar B The crank is keyed at its other endto one end of the shaft 13, which is mounted upon suitable bearings inthe box X inclosing it, and has secured to its otherend a rocking beam13 Upon either end of this rocking beam arms 13 and B are pivoted. Thearm 13 is pivoted at one end and provided with a weight b at the other.The arm 13 is pivoted near one end and is provided with a counterweighth at the end nearest its pivot. Each of these arms is enlarged at oneend and provided with jaws 6, adapted to receive the impingement of theshuttle O, which operates in the guides O O, and has a pin or key 0adapted to engage the slot D in the bent lever D, which has its fulcrumat the pivot 61 and has a counterweight D upon one end.

The rod E operates vertically in the guides e e and e c and impinges itslower end upon the bent lever D. lts upper end projects through the railA and is adapted to receive the impress of the car-wheel in passingover.

The setting mechanism consists of the rod F, operating the arm B, andthe rod F, op-

erating the arm 13'', (the latter by means of' the intermediate leverF*,) the lever F and arm F and the L-shaped dogs J J which are pivotedat their vertices.

The rods F and F are sleeved in the box G, which acts as a guide andprevents them from having any lateral motion. They are provided withcontact-plates ff at their upper ends, adapted to receive the impress ofthe wheels of the set-operating mechanism attached to the ear.

The intermediate lever F is centrally pivoted and bears against the arm13 with one end, While the pinf on the rod F impinges upon the other.

The dogs J and J swing upon pivots and are provided with weights J 2 Jthe dog J at one of its ends and J upon a short arm near its pivot.Their action is confined in one direction by the guides O O and in theother by the stops j j. One end of the dog J extends beneath the arm Fon the rod F, which the said arm impinges upon when the said rod ispressed downward. The lever F is centrally pivoted, and has one endimmediately beneath the end of the rod F and the other beneath theweighted arm of the dog J.

The stops d d. serve to confine the action of the bent lever D withinproper limits, and the stops b and Z1 confine the action of the arm 13and rocking beam B respectively, in like manner. These stops, as well asthe stops jj and the guides C G e e e e and the sleevebox G, are securedto the plate X which forms a part of the box X, inclosing the entiredevice. The pivots upon which the levers D F F and the dogs J J operateare also secured to this plate X Near the top of the box inclosing theseparts of the device is the partition X, through which the rods F, F, andE pass. This partition is secured to the four sides of the box bywater-tight joints, and at the openings through which the said rods passit is provided with washers :0 a: as, which are conical in shape,extending above the partition surrounding the rods and coming in contactwith them at their apioes. The rods at the point of contact with thewashers are provided with collars f f and 6 so that when the rods aredepressed the edges of the washers are held by these collars turnedinwardly, following the rod, and returned again to their normalpositions when the rods are pressed upward.

Set in the top cover of the box is the plate L, extending beyond the boxon either side parallel to the rails A and A and between them. Thisplate is provided with two slots or channels Z l, leading up to theplates ff. These slots are made narrow enough in width to prevent thewheels of ordinary vehicles from entering them and are flared at the endopposite the plates f f. Beginning at this end and on a level with thestreet-pavement, they curve downwardly to a point near the middle andthen curve upwardly again as they approach the plates, which aresituated near their opposite ends, one in each slot. The plates ff arebeveled to the slant of the slots, their upper ends being on a levelwith the street-pavement. The slots Z Z at the point where thecontact-plates begin are stepped, sinking abruptly again to a suitabledepth to allow for the necessary depression of the said plates, and areprovided with recesses Z at the bottom of these depressions conformingto the shape of and adapted to receive the plates when pressed downward,so that they will fit snugly therein. The slots then run upward at anangle of about twenty degrees to the level of the street-pavement.

The mechanism attached to the car \V, with the exception of the hangerP, is in duplicate. The contact-wheels H are axled upon one end of theelliptical rods K, which are pivoted to the hanger P and secured attheir other ends to the pedal-rods K, which operate in the sleeves I,and have the pedals K upon their upper ends and pins K adapted tocompress the helical springs 0 when the rods are pressed downward. Thepawls M engage the ratchets on the rods K. They are S-shaped, beingpivoted centrally and beveled at one end to fit into the said teeth, andare provided with springs N, adapted to press them against the teeth ofthe ratchets.

The sleeves I are secured to the under side of the car-platform and arecapped at their lower ends, with an opening in the center of each largeenough to admit of the rods K passing through. These rods pass throughthe center of the springs 0, one end of which abuts against the caps ofthe sleeves I. The hanger P consists of three bars or rods P (shown bydotted lines, Fig. 4,) mounted upon a plate P, by means of which theyare secured to the under side of the car-platform.

The pivot upon which the rods K turn runs transversely through the rodsP near their lower ends, the rods K running between them and beingseparated by the central one.

In explaining the operation of this device let it be supposed that thecar is moving in the direction indicated by the arrow, and that it isdesired to move the switch-tongue to the right, the pedal-rods K and thepedals K being in the position indicated by the dotted lines. Theoperator presses his foot against the right-hand pawl M, compressing thespring N and withdrawing the beveled edge from the teeth, and thuscausing the right-hand pedal-rod K to fly upward by force of the spring0 pressing against the pin K This rod moving upward causes the rod K toturn upon its pivot and depress the wheel I-I until it comes in contactwith the street-pavement, along which it will run, if necessary, untilit reaches the plate L, the vibrations caused by the roughness of thepavement being absorbed by the spring 0 and the rod K, which has a smallamount of resiliency, any lateral movement of the wheel being preventedby the hanger P. On reaching the plate L the wheel enters the right-handslot Z through its flared end, the spring 0 expanding as the wheel runsdown the incline and contracting again as it follows the incline upwarduntil the wheel strikes the plate'f near the end of the slot, whichgives way beneath its pressure, sinking until it strikes the bottom ofthe slot. The wheel now runs up the short incline of the slot to thestreet-pavement again and may then be raised clear of the ground bypressing downward upon the pedal K the pawl M engaging the ratchet andthus retaining the wheel in its position. The depressing of theright-hand plate f causes the rod F to bear downward upon theintermediate lever F by means of the pin f, thus rocking the lever andcausing it to lift the arm 13 until its enlarged end, with the jaws b,is opposite the end of the shuttle O, the dog J being pushed aside bythe arm as it moves upward and falling back into position by force ofthe weight J 3 upon its lower end after the arm has passed, and thussustaining the arm in its position when the pressure of the lever F iswithdrawn. The wheel I-I having passed over the plate f, and theclownward pressure upon the rod F being released and the arm B remainingin position, the wheel of the car next passes over the upper end of therod E,pressing it downward through the guides e e and e 6 upon the bentlever D, causing the said lever to oscillate and press the shuttle Cagainst the enlarged end of the arm B by means of the pin 0 moving inthe slot D The arm 13, being pressed backward, rocks the beam B, whichimparts a rotary motion to the shaft B, oscillating the crank B on theother end of the shaft, and thus moving the switch-tongue to the rightthrough the medium of the switch-bar 13 At the same time that the rod Fbears upon the lever Fthe arm F on the upper part of IIO the rod pressesagainst the end of the dog J, forcing it downward and causing the otherend to be withdrawn, as shown by the dotted lines, so that if the arm13* has previously been set in position, with the enlarged end oppositethe shuttle, it will be released and caused to fly upward by the weightb upon its other end until it strikes the stop 12 If the arm 13* is inthis position and the rocking beam tilted, as shown in Fig. 1, the arm Bin rising will not come in contact with the dog J, and when the pressureof the lever F is withdrawn will fall again to its former position byforce of the weight 12 and the ton guemoving mechanism will not operate,the tongue A being already in the desired position. If the rod F isdepressed, the arm B is moved to position in front of the shuttle Gin asimilar manner to the arm B and the end of the rod pressing upon one endof the lever F causes it to bear upon the weighted end of the dog J,thus causing its other end to be withdrawn and allowing the arm B todrop from its position in front of the shuttle, if it has previouslybeen set.

YVhat I claim isl. The combination with a movable switchtongue of ashaft,means to impart motion from said shaft to said tongue by themovement of said shaft, a beam secured to said shaft, alever adapted tobe operated by the passage of the car and non-automatic means, operatedby power received from the momentum of the passing car, to cause saidlever to act upon either of the said beams.

2. The combination with a movable switchtongue of a shaft,means toimpartmotion from said shaft to said. tongue, a beam secured to saidshaft, arms secured to either end of said beam and non-automatic meansoperated by power received from the momentum of the passing ear wherebya lever adapted to be shifted by the passage of the car may be caused toact upon either of said arms.

3. The combination with a movable switchtongue of a shaft, means toimpart motion from said shaft to said tongue, a beam secured to saidshaft, arms secured to either end of said beam a lever adapted to beshifted by the passage of the car and a plurality of rods, operatedindependently of said lever, by the operation of which either of saidarms may be caused to receive the action of said lever.

- at. The combination with a movable switchtongue, of a shaft, means toimpart motion from said shaft to said tongue,a beam secured to saidshaft, arms secured to either end of said beam, a buffer 0 adapted to beshifted by the passage of the car and means to cause one or the other ofsaid arms to assume a position which will cause it to be acted upon bythe said buffer.

5. The combination with a movable switchtongue, a lever adapted to beshifted by the passage of the car and means to impart motion from saidlever to said tongue, of a plurality of rods, means to cause said rodsto act upon the mechanism intermediate the said lever and switoh-tongueby the movementof said rods and cause the said tongue to be moved in onedirection or the other by the said lever.

GUSTAVUS A. BURSCH. lVitnesses:

S. J. Cox, Jr., FRANK. M. SENIOR.

